


A Second Chance for a Late-Bloomer

by SKateriMJ



Category: Naruto
Genre: Gen, Haruno Sakura-centric, Strong Haruno Sakura, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-21
Updated: 2021-02-06
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:54:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 16,733
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23761906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SKateriMJ/pseuds/SKateriMJ
Summary: Sakura Haruno was the only civilian-born student of her graduating class to become a genin. She'd been naive the first time, it'd taken far too long for her to realize what it means to be a shinobi. But when an unforeseen effect of being hit by one of Kaguya's jutsu sends Sakura back to the past and into the body of her eight-year-old self, Sakura is given the opportunity to do better. Could this be a chance to protect her friends when she'd once had to be protected? Or will she fail to conquer the natural flow of time?
Comments: 41
Kudos: 469





	1. A Stranger and Her Teacher

The first thing Sakura feels as she drifts into a semi-conscious state is a slight pinching in her fingers and toes. Somehow, though her ability to produce any kind of cohesive thought seems to be floating uselessly around in her brain, she knows that this uncomfortable feeling in her appendages is a sign of damage to her chakra coils. If that’s the case, she also knows that trying to circulate healing chakra throughout her coils might do more harm than good right now. A feeling of panic creeps into her upon realizing that this pinching feeling is the only sense she has. She tries to pick up any hint of sound or smell but fails to get any sense of where she could be.

_ Alright, Sakura. Calm down. Panicking won’t help anything. Tsunade taught me better than this. Think. What could have caused this kind of damage? What’s the last thing I remember?  _ Sakura thinks to herself, trying to force her mind to clear up even the littlest bit.  _ I remember… fighting against ten-tails Madara with the rest of team seven. We were doing fine though, with Naruto and Sasuke’s new abilities. Come on Sakura, there’s no time for this. What else? There must have been something else. _

An image of the longest white hair she’d ever seen flashes into her awareness.  _ And to think I was once convinced I could win Sasuke over with my long glossy hair. I bet he’ll never date anyone with long hair after this. _ Sakura mentally rolls her eyes and thinks back on the image. _ Two blank looking pupil-less Byakugan eyes and one blood-red Rinne Sharingan, Kaguya must have done this to me. _

Sakura strains to remember exactly what had happened to put her in such a weak state, but all she gets is a growing headache for her effort. As the pain grows, becoming more than just an inconvenience, she’s forced to stop thinking about the circumstances which led to her condition and start figuring out what kind of trouble it has put her in.

Her fingers are a good starting point since at least there’s some feeling in them, even if she knows that their level of discomfort is not a good sign. She twitches her fingers just enough to send the uncomfortable pinching up into her arms and continues stretching that feeling around her muscles until she’s regained feeling throughout her entire body. 

_ I’m obviously not on the battlefield. _ Sakura concludes, feeling the familiar softness of cotton sheets beneath her aching limbs.  _ I can’t even be in one of the nearby medical tents. The emergency cots we set up there are little more than thin cloth cots. They wouldn’t be near this comfortable. Was I moved to a hospital then? No… That can’t be right. Everyone was under the Infinite Tsukuyomi. I should definitely still be on the battlefield. Unless… Just how long have I been out? _

“Sak-” She tenses, her muscles protesting at the added strain, as sound bursts into her eardrums, the sudden noise only making the sharp thrumming of her aching head worse.  _ They must’ve noticed my stretching. Damn, that hurts. Can’t they just be quiet long enough for me to figure all of this out? _

“Sakura-chan, are you with us?” She can tell it’s a different voice this time, though she’d barely heard the first one. They both sound vaguely familiar, yet she can’t quite remember who they are.

Sakura whimpers as the words drum into her head like some kind of sound jutsu and she quickly raises the heels of her palms to her temple, hoping to relieve some of the pain. She’d run a diagnostic jutsu if she wasn’t so worried about the damage to her chakra coils. If she’s right and somehow she was brought to the hospital, it’s better to let the nurses deal with her symptoms than risk worsening them by acting without thought.  _ Medical ninja always make the worst patients, I’ve treated enough of them to know. _

She clutches her head harder as the pain only seems to be getting worse. At first, she’d thought her body was simply unused to the sensory load of being awake. If she’s been unconscious for long enough to have ended up in a hospital, then of course her body would protest any change of pace.

But now Sakura can feel the waves of pain radiating from the center of her forehead. Panic once again courses through her veins as she moves her fingers towards the cause of her pain.  _ What’s wrong with my Strength of a Hundred Seal? _

Even through her pain, Sakura hears the hurried footsteps of two people enter the room, one who is clearly comfortable walking around the hospital wearing loudly clicking heels and the other wearing something with a much softer sole. A commanding voice echoes around her and the person with the softer sounding footsteps seems to push the two who had spoken to her earlier out of the room, leaving her alone with the two new arrivals. 

Her arms are pulled quickly, yet gently to her sides and she fights against the tightening grasp until she feels a light touch that begins to exude soothing chakra into her system near the pained seal. Her whole body relaxes at the familiar feeling, almost leaning into her healer’s careful touch.  _ There’s only one person whose medical ninjutsu feels like this. _

“Tsu-” Sakura tries, coughing when her words get stuck in her throat. The hands that had been holding her down are removed and a few moments later she feels the edge of a glass on her lips. She drinks slowly, letting the cool water slide down her dry throat.

“Tsunade… Shishou…” Sakura tries again, her voice still capable of nothing more than a whisper.

Immediately, the soothing chakra stops flowing through her forehead and Sakura groans as the pain returns, though more bearable than before. Sakura wonders at the confusion that laces Tsunade’s voice as she orders the other person in the room, who at this point Sakura assumes must be a nurse, to leave.  _ Shouldn’t Tsunade-sama sound more relieved or… concerned at least? And while she’s at it, shouldn’t she still be healing me, shannaro! _

She blinks her eyes open slowly, allowing them to adjust to the light of the room. Finally, she’s able to open them fully and her eyes widen at her surroundings. The walls, old and faded yet clean, are the same as Sakura remembers from her time spent in the hospital as Tsunade’s apprentice.  _ But this hospital was destroyed by Pein’s Shinra Tensei. This is…! _

“Who are you, girl?” Tsunade says in a neutral tone meant to conceal her emotion. It might have worked if it had been almost anyone else. Yet, Sakura picks up on subtle hints of wariness in Tsunade’s voice. She’s leaned up against the windowsill with her arms crossed as if there’s nothing wrong with the world, but her forearm is flexed as if she’s digging her nails into her side. Sakura knows that means Tsunade is more than a little stressed.

Sakura turns her gaze away from her teacher to see if whatever injuries she’d sustained had somehow also made her unrecognizable. She freezes, noticing that her legs don’t even come close to reaching the end of the bed. Her hands, shaking with her newfound anxiety as she holds them up above her chest, are small and soft and lack any signs of her rigorous training. She’d grown to appreciate the callouses she’d acquired from learning to use Tsunade’s monster strength technique—being pretty means nothing if you can’t save your friends. Sakura is dismayed that these are the hands of a Sakura that has not yet learned that lesson.

_ Think, Sakura. There must be an explanation for all this. I seem to be in a much younger body, though it definitely seems like my own. This is definitely the old Konoha hospital, from before Pain’s attack on the village. So that means… _

Sakura pales at the thought that she must be in the past.

“I’ll ask you one more time, kid,” Tsunade says, her clipped words bringing Sakura’s attention back towards her teacher. “Who are you?”

“I’m Sakura Haruno,” Sakura replies, trying to buy more time to think.  _ Tsunade wasn’t in the village when I was this young. If this really is the past, and I’m in my younger body, then there’s no way Tsunade should be here. _

“Alright, Sakura Haruno,” Tsunade replies, refusing to let go of her neutral appearance. Sakura sets her shoulders, though she winces a bit at the stiffness of her muscles, and resolves to do the same. “Care to fill me in on how an eight-year-old civilian girl with the chakra reserves of a cherry could possibly have unlocked the Strength of a Hundred Seal, which no one alive should know how to do except me? Or, how you knew who I was from only the feel of my healing chakra? You called me shishou, but I’d never even heard of you before this week.”

_ Oh. The seal. If it came with me into the past… It makes sense that Tsunade would’ve been called back to investigate. Especially if it seemed to be causing a small civilian girl to be out like this. I bet Shizune convinced her to come back for this. As far as I know, the Tsunade of this time didn’t want anything to do with the village.  _

Sakura gasps, clutching her head once again. The pain in her seal intensifying as if just the thought of it is enough to exacerbate whatever’s wrong with it. She clenches her eyes shut, wishing she knew the extent of the damage to her chakra coils so she could justify using medical ninjutsu to probe the seal. Luckily, Tsunade steps towards her, easing her pain once more with her chakra before she gives in to the urge to fall back into unconsciousness. With her added pain relief, Sakura is able to take a moment to think about what she should do now.

_ I don’t know how I got into this mess. And I don’t know if I’ll be able to get back to my own time. I really don’t think Tsunade will believe me if I tell her the truth, but there isn’t any good excuse for how my eight-year-old self would obtain the seal, either. However… Tsunade did give me some good information. This body is eight-years-old, which means… _

“Can you call for Inoichi Yamanaka?” Sakura asks softly, still under the soothing effects of Tsunade’s healing. This time, Tsunade continues to pour healing chakra into Sakura, rather than pulling away from her at the sound of her voice.

“Inoichi Yama- How do you even know who that is?” Tsunade responds, sounding highly unimpressed, yet somehow equally as flustered. “Know what? Nevermind. I only came because no one else knows enough about the seal to deal with this mess. If you waste my time, I’ll just tell them to suppress your measly chakra and send you down to T&I. Then at least I don’t have to deal with you and I can leave this damn village again.”

Tsunade doesn’t miss the way Sakura’s eyes widen at the mention of T&I.  _ Of course, she knows what that is as well. _ Tsunade grumbles internally.

“Just… Please, Tsunade-sama,” Sakura replies, a pleading edge to her tone. She opens her eyes again, widening her eyes even more to appear extra vulnerable.  _ Tsunade would never admit to it, but she’s always been a sucker for a sad-looking child. If Naruto could convince her to get over herself enough to return the village after only knowing her for a week, surely I can convince her to do this one thing for me after knowing her for all these years, Shannaro! Even if she doesn’t know me at all.  _ “I’ll tell you everything, but you won’t believe any of it. I trust Yamanaka-san. He should be able to prove to you that I’m not lying. I know he’ll come if you tell him it’s for me.”

Sakura relaxes as Tsunade gives her a look of consideration and shakes her head, which Sakura takes as a clear sign that she’d grant her request. She breathes out a sigh of relief before Tsunade taps her forehead lightly, sending her into a deep, painless sleep.

The slug sannin pinches her nose in annoyance, already anticipating the storm she’d just put herself in the middle of.  _ I’ll have to look into her seal more once she wakes up again tomorrow. There’s obviously something wrong with it, but I can’t tell what it is. However… It seems like she’s more involved in this than her parents think. Hopefully, she’ll have more answers than questions. Damn it all. Why couldn’t I have run when I began winning at the slots? Or at least the second I saw Jiraiya’s ugly mug. Nothing good ever happens when he comes looking for me. _

With a scowl and a growing desire for something strong enough to make her tipsy, Tsunade leaves the small pink-haired anomaly to her rest.  _ I’d better go ask my old sensei if I can borrow Inoichi for a few hours. _


	2. A Drunk and Her Excuses

After leaving Sakura’s hospital room with more questions than answers, Tsunade told the small girl’s parents that they could go back in and sit with her as long as they don’t touch her. Tsunade doesn’t think physical contact could do any damage, but she knows all too well that seals are never to be underestimated.

“Shizune, we’re leaving,” Tsunade snaps, walking briskly down the hall without waiting for any sign of acknowledgment from her apprentice. As expected, Shizune gives a quick apology to the Harunos before running after her.

“Lady Tsunade!” Shizune says, having caught up without much effort. Though she continues following behind Tsunade, she keeps glancing back at the room they’d just left. “Where are we going? That girl is obviously unwell and in pain! Surely there’s more we can do for her.”

“Why are you so worried about her,” Tsunade replies without a glance in Shizune’s direction. “I put her to sleep so she won’t feel any pain until she wakes up again, which won’t be for another few days unless someone releases the jutsu I cast on her. Anyway, the girl should never have been made our problem. I only came because Jiraiya promised he would pay off my debts. The money he makes from those perverted books of his might as well go towards a good cause. Once he’s satisfied, we get to leave. That was the deal.”

“She’s just a child!” Shizune protests, following her out of the hospital. “And whatever’s wrong with her seal, you’re the only one who knows enough about it to help her. If we leave now, she’ll probably never recover! Could you really live with yourself if that girl dies when you could have saved her?”

“That’s no innocent girl, Shizune,” Tsunade says, the frown on her face deepening at the frustration she can hear in Shizune’s voice. “She didn’t even try to hide the fact that she knows more than an eight-year-old has any right to. She took one look at me and refused to say anything more until I bring in the head of the Analysis Team.”

“She did what?” Shizune says, her mouth gaping for a moment before she shakes her head vigorously as if trying to clear it of fog. Her face hardens and she grabs Tsunade’s wrist, pulling her to an abrupt stop. “She’s still just a kid, Lady Tsunade. An untrained civilian girl who has only just started at the academy. Even if she got herself caught up in some kind of trouble, there’s no way she deserves longterm consequences for it. Be reasonable!”

“Does it look like we’re on our way out of the village, Shizune?” Tsunade asks, ripping her arm out of Shizune’s grasp. Shizune shrinks under the sannin’s harsh glare as the older woman gestures towards the building they’d come to a halt in front of. Taking a moment to look around, Shizune is surprised to find herself on Academy grounds outside of the building that houses the Hokage’s office.

“You’re going to see Hokage-sama?” Shizuna asks, surprised. “I thought you intended to avoid him while we’re in the village.”

“The brat said she wouldn’t talk to me unless the Yamanaka is involved.” Tsunade nods, heading inside. “Somehow, I know that arguing with her is a waste of time. The sooner I suck it up and talk to my old sensei, the sooner this can all be over.”

In the end, Shizune finds herself capable only of following her teacher inside, completely and utterly dumbfounded.

* * *

Hiruzen had been surprised when his student burst into his office without warning, but he’d been pleased to see her. In the end, he’d needed little convincing to allow Tsunade to borrow Inoichi for a few hours. All he asked was that she give a full report once she’s satisfied with a course of action that should be taken with the girl. Outside of war, the few cases the Analysis Team is called to deal with can easily be handled by the lower-ranking members. Losing the Yamanaka for a day wouldn’t cause even the smallest stutter in their productivity. In fact, Hiruzen felt that the man might appreciate having something to do besides paperwork. Or maybe he’s just projecting himself onto the man. It wouldn’t be the first time. Besides, after all these years away from the village, Tsunade could have asked for almost anything and the old man would have at least considered it. 

Of course, Tsunade wasn’t so lucky for their meeting to end without Hiruzen asking her if she wouldn’t reconsider his offer to take over the hospital, even if it would only be an administrative role to avoid aggravating her hemophobia. The old man had tried to take advantage of her ego by reminding her that the village would be much better off if she’d stick around. With her out of the village, the standards for shinobi treatment had fallen to all-time lows.

Of course, she’d told him to forget it before breaking the doors down in anger on her way out. Hiruzen supposed he was lucky Tsunade still respects him enough to take her rage out on his office rather than his face. Not that he’d let her land a punch if she tried. A Hokage has an image to maintain, after all.

After shooing Shizune away to reconnect with her old friends from her genin days or anything else that she can’t do while following Tsunade around the Land of Fire—who knows how long they’ll stay or if they’ll ever return again—Tsunade made a beeline for the nearest bar.

Only after gulping down the last drops of her second bottle of sake does Tsunade finally allow herself to think.  _ Damn. It’s been more than ten years since I left the village with no intention of ever returning. Back then… If anyone had told me I’d come running back here because of some girl, well… They’d better have hoped they aren’t fragile. _

Tsunade scowls as a hand touches her shoulder.

“You’d better take that hand off of me if you know what’s good for you,” Tsunade growls, downing the first cup of sake from her third bottle. “It’s your fault I’m stuck in here getting drunk, after all.”

“Aw, don’t be like that Tsunade-chan!” Jiraiya replies in a high-pitched teasing tone of voice. Wisely, however, the toad-sannin removes his hand in favor of taking the seat next to her and ordering a bottle for himself. “We both know that any amount of begging or bribing from me could have convinced you to come if you were dead-set against it.”

“Eh?” Tsunade scowls, looking over at him like he’d just given her a new excuse to think he’s crazy. Not that she needed any more of those. “Why the hell do you think I’m here then? It’s certainly not for pleasure. I never would have come back here if you hadn’t promised me so much money. My life will be much easier without all those debt collectors constantly pestering me. That’s worth a few days in the village, even if I have to drown myself in sake to endure it.”

“Come on Tsunade,” Jiraiya replies, thanking the bartender for his drink with a curt nod and a smile. “Admit it. You came because you were curious. I came to you with the story of a girl who’d manifested a seal that matched the one you’d discussed with me in theory just before you left the village. Now, of course, I know that you’ve finished it, but that’s beside the point. A girl who’s never left the village and enrolled in the Academy only a few weeks ago. Not to mention the coma that she fell into just before her parents found her unconscious with that seal on her forehead. You were curious and concerned, even if you’re too stubborn to admit it.”

Tsunade was not quick to reply, choosing to down yet another gulp of sake. She wishes she could truthfully deny Jiraiya’s claim. It would be easier for all of them if Tsunade was only here for the freedom Jiraiya’s money would afford her. She can still say without hesitation that she has no desire to stay in Konoha, she doesn’t think she’ll ever be able to walk these streets without thinking of Dan and Nawaki. But Shizune was right when she insinuated that she wouldn’t be able to live with herself if she’d let the girl die, knowing she might be able to save her. And Jiraiya was right when he said that she had been curious about the girl.

She’d spent years figuring out the logistics of the seal and then years after that accomplishing it. How the hell could this girl have achieved it without any training?! It makes her blood boil just thinking about it. Is the girl some kind of foolish prodigy? Or had someone managed to replicate the seal without her knowing and had decided to use the girl as a test subject? It’s unlikely, considering she’d never written about the seal or kept any notes. Someone would have had to develop it completely on their own, which couldn’t possible led them to develop the exact same seal as her own. But there was no denying that the seal on the pink-haired girl’s forehead is the same as hers, if a bit damaged. It was all a confusing mess, one which Tsunade wishes she could avoid thinking about for a few hours, which had been her intention before Jiraiya showed up.

Tsunade turns to glare intently at her unwanted drinking companion, hoping he’ll take the less than subtle hint and leave. She’s here to avoid thinking. And Jiraiya’s here solely to make her think.

“You know, Tsunade,” Jiraiya says, staring into his cup as he swirls the sake in a spiral, oblivious to the heat coming from Tsunade’s gaze. “Sensei didn’t want me to come looking for you, to ask for your help with this.”

Tsunade pauses, her cup raised halfway to her lips.

“You told me he was the one who requested my return,” Tsunade states, confusion lacing her tone. The anger from before a mere memory.

“I lied,” Jiraiya says, chuckling to himself as if he finds the whole situation as amusing and unimportant as a skirmish amongst genin. “He was convinced that you’d never return to the village for a girl you don’t know, or for any other reason. He didn’t want me to waste my breath trying to do the impossible.”

Tsunade scowls, somehow finding herself offended despite having just finished trying to convince Jiraiya that she really wouldn’t have returned for almost anything. But it sounds harsher coming from her sensei, the one person alive Tsunade thought would still believe in her despite everything.

“I never doubted it for a second.” Jiraiya continues, looking more serious than Tsunade can remember him ever looking since they’d been in the war. “You put yourself through harsh training, in the middle of a war, to become the best medical ninja there’s ever been because you couldn’t do anything to save Nawaki. And after you lost Dan, I thought you’d want to be alone. But you brought Shizune with you. You couldn’t deny her request to become your apprentice and I knew you wouldn’t be able to justify leaving Sakura Haruno to suffer. Sensei might not have seen that in you, but you couldn’t fool me for a second. You have a weak spot for adorable little children.”

“You know Jiraiya,” Tsunade says, smiling devilishly at her old teammate, causing a bead of sweat to fall from his brow. “You’re as much of an idiot as you’ve always been.”

Jiraiya laughs, a guffaw that’s like a letting go of years worth of tension. Tsunade might be more prickly than all the Cactus in Suna, but he’s missed this. He’s missed having a teammate to tell him off when he’s being too pushy. He stands, setting enough money on the counter to pay for all the alcohol Tsunade might drink that night and more. He hopes so, anyway,

“Will you come with me to check the seal tomorrow?” Tsunade asks, turning to catch his attention before he leaves. “I could definitely tell that something isn’t right, but whatever it is isn’t obvious. I’m hoping she might be able to give us a hint, but your sealing knowledge could be useful. Anyway, if I have to get up and do work in the morning, you should too, since you dragged me into this.”  
“I’ll be there,” Jiraiya answers with an easy shrug. “She was my puzzle to solve before I threw you at her, after all.”

With a grunt of acknowledgment from Tsunade, he saunters out of the bar, leaving Tsunade to her vice. She sighs heavily, downing the last of her sake and bidding the bartender a good night before heading out to her own hotel. She would’ve loved to stay longer to drown her sorrows, but Jiraiya had gotten her head full of thoughts and she knows there’s no point in trying to ignore them now. She’d rather get some sleep.

Tomorrow is bound to be even more exhausting than today.


	3. The Sannin and Responsibility

When Tsunade walks out of her hotel the next morning, she’s met with the sight of Jiraiya leaning against the wall just to the right of the door. While she’s surprised to find him, it isn’t because he knows which hotel to find her at—he is Konoha’s spymaster for a reason—rather, he’s never been an early riser. Even during missions, Tsunade had always had to drag him out of his bedroll against his will. For him to be out here waiting for her before 9 AM, he must be really invested in all this.

“Good morning, Lady Tsunade!” Jiraiya says, his eyes swimming with mirth as he greets her with a deep teasing bow. “I should’ve known you’d clean yourself up after last night. If I had chakra control like yours I’d learn medical ninjutsu just to avoid the hangovers!”

“I’m glad you don’t then,” Tsunade replies, already walking away from the hotel. She can already feel the nerves in her forehead tightening from annoyance and she grimaces at the thought of a whole day with the man. “You aren’t nearly responsible enough while intoxicated to have the privilege to do it without consequences. You’re already enough of a hazard to women.”

“Hah! Maybe you’re right,” Jiraiya laughs easily, following quickly after her. The further they get from the hotel, however, the more confused he becomes. “Have you forgotten your way around the village Tsunade? The hospital is back that way. Who would have thought just a few years away from the village could make a medic like you forget that?”

Tsunade scoffs, rolling her eyes and continuing in the same direction she’d been going in before.

“I know where I’m going, you idiot,” Tsunade growls, clenching her hands into tight fists at the sound of his nerve grating voice. She can’t imagine how she managed to be on the same team as him for many war-filled years without actually killing the man. She must’ve been really crazy when she was young. “It’s you who doesn’t know where we’re going.”

Fortunately for Jiraiya, he takes the hint and they continue on in relative silence. He, of course, still has his doubts that Tsunade isn’t getting herself lost, but to question her again would be no different than asking to have his head caved in. Now, Jiraiya is convinced he can still take a direct hit from Tsunade (not without a bit of pain; that’s beside the point), but he knows for sure that he doesn’t want to find out.

As they walk at a rather sedate pace, especially for a pair of ninja, neither of them are oblivious to the whispers and stares coming from both civilians and low-level ninja alike. It seems at least the high-ranking ninja know better than to talk about powerful ninja within an easy hearing distance. Tsunade wishes they could learn to read the mood. She could admit that Jiraiya is superior to them in this way, even if he falls behind in all other ways.

“That’s Tsunade Senju and Jiraiya of the legendary sannin!”

“Is everything okay? Something big must have happened for them to be back in the village together...”

“I just hope they stay. The village would be safer with ninja like that around.”

“Yeah. Especially with that brat running around. Hokage-sama couldn’t argue if his own students dealt with the little demon.”

“Yeah, surely the sannin can protect us from that  _ thing _ .”

That last word,  _ thing _ , had been said with such vitriol that Tsunade would’ve thought the civilian who’d said it must have been talking about a ninja from the last war, Lady Chiyo of Sunagakure, perhaps. She never would’ve guessed they were talking about a snot-nosed brat still in the academy.

Tsunade glanced over at Jiraiya, who was having a hard time schooling his face into a small frown, rather than the deep look of anger she would’ve expected to find growing deeper at each pointed comment. Even a fool could tell the villagers were talking about the jinchuriki, Minato Namikaze’s kid.  _ If only these idiots knew just who they were talking about within Jiraira’s ear-length. They’d be mortified. Even I wouldn’t want to be in their shoes right now. I don’t even know the kid, and I’m angry. I can’t imagine what Jiraiya would do to them if they met in a dark alley. Such ignorant fools. I bet Sensei will have his hands full once I’m done with Jiraiya for the day. _

Coming to a stop in front of the Yamanaka Flower Shop, Tsunade grabs the back of Jiraiya’s haori since he’s too preoccupied with oppressive thoughts of his godson to realize that she’d stopped. Upon recognizing their destination, the old sage gives Tsunade a look of disapproval, drawing his own conclusions about their purpose here.

“Tsunade...” Jiraiya asks, his tone warning her that she’d better have a good explanation for this. Tsunade can tell that he’s not expecting an answer he’ll approve of. “Please tell me we’re here to buy the poor girl some flowers.”

Ignoring him, Tsunade pushes into the shop, heading straight for the check-out counter where a Yamanaka with the usual long blond ponytail and light green eyes is looking through a pile of receipts wearing a light green apron over standard black shinobi attire.

“Welcome! Let me know if-” The man pales as he looks up from his work to see the two sannin approaching him, neither of them looking like they are in any kind of good mood. Setting down his receipts, he turns to call up the stairs behind the counter. “Uh. Honey? Can you come watch the shop for me?”

“Inoichi Yamanaka, correct?” Tsunade asks as the man takes off his apron and grabs his Jonin vest from a closet around the corner. She can vaguely remember the man from her days in the village, but he’d been little more than a teenager the last time she’d interacted with him.

“Yes,” Inoichi answers, his wife appearing at the bottom of the stairs and gaping at the sight of the sannin in the shop before saying quickly that she’ll watch the shop for as long as he needed, but that he should go. Stepping out from behind the counter, the man gestures towards a room on the far side of the shop. “Would you like to sit down for some tea in a more… secure space?”

Tsunade nods and the two sannin follow Inoichi into the room. Tsunade notes that this room is probably used for impromptu clan business and for situations like this one. Although, considering the thin layer of dust that covers the counters at the far side of the room, Tsunade doubts it sees much use. After shutting the door behind them, he activates the room’s privacy seals and takes a seat at the room’s only table.

“I’m sorry, I don’t actually have any tea,” Inoichi chuckles nervously. Despite being the head of both the Yamanaka clan and T&I’s Analysis Team, he’d not anticipated doing business with two of the village’s most formidable shinobi on his day off.  _ The Hokage could stand to warn a guy. There’s no way he didn’t know they’d be stopping by. At least the barrier team told me they arrived in the village yesterday. I can’t imagine how much worse this would all be if I didn’t even know they were nearby.  _ “What can I help you with?”

“What do you know of the civilian girl, Sakura Haruno?” Tsunade asks, surprised to find the Yamanaka stiffen even further at the question. It’s one thing to be uneasy when you get a surprise visit from two of the sannin, but he clearly wasn’t expecting to hear the girl’s name. He must not be involved in whatever the girl’s gotten herself into, but he definitely knows who she is.  _ Why would she ask for him if he’s not involved? _

“Sakura Haruno? Pink-haired academy student, eight years old?” Inoichi asks, failing to keep the shock and confusion from his face as Tsunade nods in confirmation. “She’s a friend of my daughter’s. They’re in the same class at the academy. Ino says she’s been missing from the academy for over a week now and her teachers wouldn’t say why. Has something happened to her?”

“She knows you only as Ino’s father, then?” Tsunade presses, ignoring his last question. There’s no doubt in her mind that Inoichi is loyal to the village, a mole in the Analysis team is far from her paygrade either way, but she needs to know why the girl would call for this man specifically. “Does she know about your position in the village?”

“I never discuss my work around Ino, let alone her civilian friend. Ino, of course, knows about my position in the Analysis team, so it’s possible that she told Sakura, but they’re always more interested in flowers and hair.” The Yamanaka replies, only becoming more confused at Tsunade’s questions. He leans back in his chair and crosses his arms, appearing deep in thought, as if he thinks he should know what Tsunade is looking for in his answers. “I’m not even sure Sakura would understand what my position entails if Ino  _ had  _ told her. I doubt even Ino fully understands it, beyond the use of our clan’s jutsu. What is this all about?”

To Tsunade’s right, Jiraiya seems just as confused as Inoichi. Tsunade hasn’t told him anything about this. He can’t imagine what the man has to do with Sakura’s condition or her mysterious seal. At first, he’d thought Tsunade intends to interrogate the girl, to make sure she’s not a spy or a threat to the village. He can tell it’s more than that now, but he has no idea what it could be. Whatever her reason, he can tell by Inoichi’s closed off body language that she’s going about this the wrong way.

“Sakura Haruno was found unconscious in her bed a little over a week ago,” Jiraiya answers, ignoring Tsunade’s glare at the interruption. If they are going to seek Inoichi’s help, they may as well stop treating him as if he’s suspicious. Tsunade hasn’t punched him yet, so she must not completely disagree with him. “I was called in to investigate a mark that somehow appeared on her forehead overnight. The Hokage forbade the medics from touching her since he was unsure of its intended purpose. He was worried it might be an offensive seal, placed on the girl to cause harm to the village. I was able to confirm that, while the seal appeared to be harming the girl, it does not have the sealing components to do anything to anyone except for her. In fact, the seal is made of her own chakra.”

Jiraiya pauses, allowing Inoichi a moment to let the new information to sink in, before continuing.

“Still, I felt it was best if the girl remained untouched by the medics. I’m the only sealing master in the village, yet I’d never seen a seal like hers. However, it reminded me of a seal I’d once discussed in theory with an old teammate of mine.” Jiraiya gestures at Tsunade as if Inoichi couldn’t already tell who he’d been talking about. “So, I brought her back her to look at the seal, which is a near-perfect match to Tsunade’s own. Except, Sakura’s seal is causing her pain.”

“What does that have to do with me?” Inoichi asks after mulling it over in silence for a few minutes. “You can’t mean to suggest that I use my clan techniques on her, to find out what she knows? We don’t use those jutsus on children for a reason! A child her age hasn’t developed their mindscape enough to house a second soul, not even for a few moments. It could destroy her mind, rip it to shreds.”

“She seems to know things that no eight-year-old civilian should know,” Tsunade replies, standing so her back is facing the two men. “She recognized me by the feel of my healing chakra, called me Shishou. And you. She asked for you. She refused to give me an explanation until I brought you to her.”

Tsunade sighs, looking over her shoulder with a hard look on her face.

“Does that sound like the Sakura Haruno that is friends with your young daughter? Cause it doesn’t sound like any innocent kid I’ve ever met.” Tsunade finishes, biting her lip until it almost bleeds.

“Tsunade,” Jiraiya says, looking into her eyes as if to see her true intentions. “We can’t risk something like that. Not until we know for sure she’s a threat. Surely you of all people know that.”

“None of that changes the fact that Sakura refuses to talk without him,” Tsunade snaps, turning fully back towards the men. She wishes she knew Inoichi better, so she could take her anger out on his table without feeling too guilty about it.  _ Maybe I’ll just go with Jiraiya when he gives the old man a piece of his mind. Between the two of us, I bet I can get away with snapping the Hokage’s desk in half.  _ “I never said he’d have to use any jutsu. That’s between him and Sakura. I’m only here because she asked for him. I’ve already spoken with the Hokage. He doesn’t think it’s important enough to require an official order, but if you agree, he’s allowed you time away from the Analysis team to help with this investigation. It’s your choice. Just remember that the fate of Sakura Haruno may well depend on your decision.”

The room becomes silent as Jiraiya and Inoichi don contemplative looks. Tsunade had probably laid that last piece about the girl’s fate on a bit thick, but a little over-exaggeration never hurt anyone. She needs Inoichi to agree to help them. If she needs to be a bit underhanded to get his help, so be it. Looking at the torn look on Jiraiya’s face, however, she wonders if she might have gone too far.

Jiraiya seems almost lost. As a spymaster, he’s well aware that children can be especially dangerous because people are always willing to overlook them. They’re small, generally good at hiding, and can always claim innocence as their alibi. He’s had to deal with more than one child-spy in his career and is not above dealing with them as harshly as he would an adult, even if he can still see the baby-fat on their cheeks in his nightmares. Yet, by all accounts, Sakura Haruno should be a regular civilian girl born to two below-average ninja parents. She hasn’t even been in the academy for a month. She has a smaller chakra capacity than most her age. Jiraiya can’t bring himself to believe that the girl is dangerous.

“I’ll come,” Inoichi states, startling the sannin out of their respective musing. The nervousness that’d rolled off of him since he’d first seen the sannin is gone, almost as if it had never been there at all. In its place is a thick layer of cool determination. Ichoichi isn’t sure why the girl would call to him for help, but Sakura’s caught up in a dangerous situation, there’s no guarantee it won’t affect his Ino. And even if it wouldn’t, he’d expect others to help Ino if she found herself in Sakura’s position. He’d be a hypocrite if he doesn’t agree to do all he can for the girl. “If it’ll help Sakura, of course, I’ll come.”

“You know,” Tsunade replies, shaking her head in disbelief and chuckling lightly under her breath. She turns towards the door, Jiraiya rising to stand behind her. “She said you’d come if it was for her.”


	4. A Girl and Her Strange Problems

This time Sakura startles awake with a jolt, sitting up quickly enough to shake the stiff pain back into her muscles. She groans, feeling two different sets of hands guiding her head and shoulders slowly back down to the bed. The cool feeling of Tsunade’s healing chakra radiates from her forehead and the tension in her face melts away—Sakura hadn’t even noticed the seal’s pain until she was suddenly relieved that it was gone. It must have been plain to see on her face. After a few moments, her head is propped up again and she feels the edge of a glass on her lips, though the healing chakra doesn’t ease up in the process.

“Drink slowly,” Sakura complies, recognizing the clearly annoyed voice of her shishou. “Take a moment to wake up properly, then we’ll talk.”

Sakura blinks her eyes open slowly, allowing them to adjust to the light of the room, though the faint green glowing of Tsunade’s healing is brighter than anything else she can see. She’s once again relieved to find that Tsunade must have dimmed the lights after her harsh reaction to it the last time, there’s nothing she can do about the chakra light. Without the pain relief, Sakura doubts she could even open her eyes at all through the pain of the seal.

Looking around the room, she freezes at the sight of Inoichi. The man, standing awkwardly in the corner of the room and looking at her with a mix of mild concern and thinly veiled unease, looks exactly as she remembers him. Even in his jonin attire, the man looks about as intimidating as the flowers in his clan’s shop. She’d barely believed it when she found out the man worked for T&I as a third-year at the academy, but his deceiving gentle appearance is one he had shared with his daughter. Before his death, that is.

Now, Sakura wants to cry at the sight of him. In her head, his death had only been a few hours ago and she’d had no time to grieve. He’s her best friend’s father, she’d called him Inoichi-ojisan when she came by to play with Ino on the weekends. Sakura only hopes that the time she came from is frozen, so Ino won’t have to grieve his death without her.

Noticing the concern growing more prominent on Inoichi’s face, she tears her gaze from him and is surprised to find Jiraiya leaning casually against the window sill. Jiraiya is also dead in her time, but she’d at least had a few weeks to get over that loss. At any rate, Sakura hadn’t known the man nearly as well as Inoichi. And she’d been nearby for Naruto after he found out about his death, just in case he needed her support. He never did come to her for help, but she was glad that he didn’t end up grieving alone for long regardless.

Unlike with Inoichi, Sakura can find no insight into his thoughts from his facial features. This is a side of the toad sannin that she’s never seen before. With Naruto around, the old man was always acting goofy and perverted, without a care in the world. Now, the man looks serious and every bit as imposing as one would expect from a ninja with his reputation. Still, Sakura’s sure she knows how to get the man to loosen up a bit. 

“Tsunade-sama…” Sakura grumbles, testing her voice slowly. She turns to look back at her shishou, putting on a look of severe disappointment for added effect. “Why did you have to bring the pervert back with you?”

Inoichi and Jiraiya’s mouths fall open in shock as Tsunade bursts out into such heavy laughter that she struggles to keep up the steady stream of her healing chakra. Inoichi comes to his senses soon after and glares accusingly at the toad sannin, assuming the young Sakura must have had an unsavory encounter with the man. Jiraiya splutters, waving his hands in some wild attempt to prove his innocence.

“No no no... You’re getting the wrong idea about all this!” He cries, causing Tsunade to laugh even harder. “This is just a misunderstanding! The girl’s never even seen me before now! I don’t know where she got that idea into her head, really!”

Inoichi shakes his head, clearly not believing the older man. The Yamanaka might not know Jiraiya that well, but the reputation of his character spreads farther than the tales of his feats in the field. You never want to be facing the man in battle, but you definitely don’t want your wife and daughter to go to a bathhouse when he’s in town. Yet, for a young girl to recognize him as a pervert by sight alone…

“Aww,” Sakura teases, grinning widely back at Jiraiya, eyes swimming with mirth. “You’re no fun! I thought for sure you’d correct me and say ‘I’m no pervert! I’m a super pervert!’ But you had to go and get caught up in all the details instead.”

“Hah!” Jiraiya lets out a loud laugh, his shoulders shaking gaily. Then, without warning, he snaps back into his previous serious facade. “Now why don’t you explain how you know so much about me? Like I said, I’m pretty sure we’ve never met. It’s common knowledge that I’m a pervert. But very few people know that I call myself a super pervert.”

“I don’t mind explaining myself, now that Inoichi is here to confirm my story,” Sakura replies, the light air gone from her tone as she shrugs her shoulders at Jiraiya. But the uncomfortable tingling in her shoulders as she moves them makes her turn back to Tsunade with a question written on her face. “Tsunade-sama? How bad is the damage to my tenketsu? I’m surprised you haven’t at least started healing them yet. They feel just as bad as they did the last time I was awake.”

A look of confusion spreads across Tsunade’s face as she moves her hands away from her forehead to her center. Sakura winces as the cooling chakra leaves the seal and the prickly feeling of a diagnostic jutsu begins to spread through her chakra system. Tsunade’s eyes widen as she feels the damage with her chakra.

“You idiot!” Tsunade snaps, glaring hotly at Jiraiya, who shrinks under her piercing gaze. “You never told me there was anything wrong with her except the seal. There’s not a single chakra point in her body that’s unharmed! How could you have missed that?”

“I already told you back at the flower shop!” Jiraiya replies, looking concernedly down at Sakura with no small amount of guilt. “The medics were forbidden from touching her since I wasn’t sure what would impact the seal. You were here with her yesterday, how could you have-”

“How bad is it, Tsunade?” Sakura interrupts, catching her eye with a look that warned her not to lie. She might be in the body of an eight-year-old, but she’s a chunin and an accomplished medic, shannaro! She won’t be placated like any common child.

Tsunade hesitates for a moment before sighing heavily and nodding at her patient. Taking on the tone of an experienced medic, one which Sakura feels suits her shishou more than the more casual tone she’d been using before, Tsunade begins to voice her thoughts aloud.

“I’ve never seen an injury like this before,” She says, still running the diagnostic jutsu, though Sakura knows it’s probably in vain at this point. “It’s almost like your tenketsu have been forcibly shut, which could happen if you’d been fighting with a Hyuga, except they’ve been severely chakra burned as well. Which is odd. It’s unheard of for a Hyuga to possess dense enough chakra to cause this kind of damage. Perhaps…”

Tsunade moves her hands back to the seal, but instead of emitting her healing chakra as pain relief, she continues the diagnostic jutsu. The prickling from the jutsu combined with the pain from the seal, which had been slowly intensifying since Tsunade had stopped soothing it, causes Sakura to clench her eyes shut and groan loudly in pain. Despite her obvious discomfort, Tsunade doesn’t stop her probing, rather the pain only increases as the prickly feeling spreads further into the seal. Sakura feels herself just beginning to scream in pain before the pain is once again replaced by the cooling sensation.

“You could have warned me,” Sakura groans weakly, opening her eyes again and glaring at Tsunade, receiving a light glare in response. “Did you at least find what you were looking for?”

From across the room, Inoichi scoffs in disbelief.

“I see what you mean when you say she acts differently than you’d expect from such a young civilian girl,” He says. “The Sakura Haruno that I know is much more timid. She once came home with Ino crying after scraping a knee, yet there were no tears shed after all that. Jiraiya’s right, she’s got some explaining to do.”

“Your seal is overloaded with chakra,” Tsunade says, tension clear in her voice. “The seal was created to only fill up to a specific amount of chakra, which the user must funnel into the seal at a constant rate for an extended amount of time. Once it’s filled, the user shouldn’t be able to push anymore chakra into it. Considering the amount of pain the seal is causing you, I have to assume the chakra was forced into it. Care to shed some light on all this? I have no idea how to go about fixing any of it. Not with the information I have now.”

Sakura looks down at her hands, taking a moment to decide what she actually does know about the situation. It’s obvious that Kaguya somehow sent her into the past, though she’s not sure if it was intentional or not. She can’t imagine why Kaguya would want to send her here, she’s more of a threat here than she ever could have been there. So it must have been accidental. She came back with the strength of a hundred heal, most likely because she had it activated when she was brought back. Then…

“I think I know what must’ve happened,” Sakura says softly, drawing the attention of the room. “But it’s complicated. You won’t believe me unless I show Inoichi first. I know I wouldn’t believe it if I were in your position. And I’m honestly too tired to try explaining it to you anyway.”

Inoichi narrows his eyes at her, moving a few steps closer to Sakura and setting a hand on the edge of her bed.

“I can’t do that,” He says. “None of the Yamanaka clan jutsu are safe to use on children your age or even an adult civilian since they have so little chakra and undeveloped chakra systems. In most cases, it’s not even safe for children your age to use the jutsu. What good does it do for us to believe your story if your mind is destroyed beyond repair in the process?”

“I… actually hadn’t thought of that,” Sakura replies, chuckling sheepishly under her breath. She looks at Tsunade nervously as she comes to a sudden realization. “But I think I might have a solution. Though, I have a feeling you won’t like it very much.”

Tsunade shifts her gaze between Sakura’s still nervous looking face and her seal.

“You want to activate it, don’t you?” Tsunade asks, her tone dripping with resignation.

“Hold on, now!” Jiraiya cuts in. He’d been standing so quietly in the corner since Tsunade checked out the seal that Sakura had almost forgotten he was even there for a moment. He steps away from the wall with his hands waving in front of him as if to accent his hesitation. “Even if we weren’t concerned about the seal malfunctioning or having some unknown side effect, only the girl seems to have any idea about what’s going on. Do we really trust her enough to let her activate a seal that has obviously been compromised in some way? She’s suspicious, you have to admit that, Tsunade. We don’t know what could happen.”

“Wait, let me explain myself first,” Sakura replies, looking at Tsunade with pleading eyes. “If you let me activate the seal, it should solve more than one of our problems. First, I think activating the seal might release the extra chakra that’s been pushed into it. I have my suspicions about why it’s even there in the first place, but I’ll explain that later.”

“Second, obviously you already know this, Tsunade-sama, the strength of a hundred seal is powerful enough to heal its user of any injury. I suspect it will allow me to endure Inoichi’s interrogation technique. It should also heal my damaged tenketsu, I’m sure I’ve used it to heal worse injuries. Besides, do you really think that an eight-year-old girl, even a suspicious one who seems to know more than she should, could hold her own against two of the sannin and a highly ranked jonin?”

The room collapses into an uncomfortable silence as the three adults ponder their options. Sakura can tell by the grim look on her face that, while her shishou is clearly still uneasy, Tsunade is leaning towards going along with it.

The hard frown that’s been on Jiraiya’s face since she joked about his reputation has still not left his face. In fact, Sakura swears it’s almost solidified onto it, like some kind of organic facemask. She wishes she knew the man well enough to know what that look means. She imagines it’s not a good sign.

Inoichi just looks apprehensive in a way that reminds Sakura of his reaction when he first saw Ino hanging off of Sai. Somehow, Sakura wasn’t expecting him to seem so overprotective of her. Sure, she’s Ino’s best friend, but at this point in time, she’s only known Inoichi for a few weeks. Perhaps she’d underestimated his general instincts to protect children, known or unknown. Either way, she wishes he would just take her word for it and perform the damn jutsu, shannaro!

“Tsunade-sama,” Inoichi says, hesitation clear in the way he clears his throat mid-sentence. Sakura almost feels bad for bringing him into all this. When she’d first asked Tsunade to bring him here, she’d been picturing the Inoichi of the war: strong, steadfast, task-focused. She’d forgotten that this Inoichi has the luxury to be much softer in ways that aren’t safe during times of war. Eh. He’ll be fine. “Is she right? Would it work and be safe for her?”

“I can’t guarantee that,” Tsunade replies, shaking her head slowly. “But I agree with the girl. Even I don’t have the means to heal her, and we need answers. If this is the only way to get them…”

“She should do it,” Jiraiya finishes for her, sighing heavily and crossing his arms. His frown is still solidly in place and Sakura still can’t tell what he’s thinking.  _ I’ve never been so frustrated to not know what someone else it thinking. Even Kakashi-sensei is easier to read than this.  _ “At least, let me put a containment seal around the room. From the sounds of it, it seems like this seal might cause a spike of chakra that every competent ninja in the village will feel. There’s no need to put everyone on alert over this.”

With that, Jiraiya moves to the door and pulls a bottle of sealing ink from his tool pouch, grumbling to himself while drawing sealing components on the wood. Inoichi moves closer to Sakura’s side, setting a comforting hand on hers.

“Are you sure about this, Sakura?” He asks, kneeling down so they’re at the same height. “You can always back out. None of us would blame you. This whole thing is pretty risky. It’s a wonder you aren’t scared stiff. I know Ino would be.”

“I’m sure,” Sakura replies, giving him a look of determination that she’s hopes will reassure him that she knows what she’s getting herself into. “I’m not the little Sakura Haruno that you know. Not anymore.”


	5. A Stranger and her Past

Chapter 5: A Stranger and Her Past

When Sakura Haruno activates her seal, the chakra that had been overloading it floods into her tenketsu almost as fast they heal. Blinded by the pain of every single one of her chakra points forcibly expanding to accommodate the searing chakra, she bites harshly through her bottom lip before her jaw is pried open and cloth is shoved into her mouth so she can’t breathe. Her limbs, recently heavy and stiff with damage, now thrash wildly as the excess chakra burns her cells and the seal replaces them with new ones.

This cycle of agony continues until all of the extra chakra is expelled from the seal and there is nothing left to be healed. Sakura opens her eyes and spits onto the corner of her hospital blanket, now stained red with her blood. Grimacing at the streaks of red dribbling down her chin, she uses the make-shift rag to wipe it away from her lips.

“You look like hell,” Tsunade says, eyeing her warily as she straightens her back and crosses her arms. Sakura’s sure she’d been hovering over her wishing she could do more than keep her from chewing through her own lip. “Were you expecting that to happen? Cause I can tell you that the seal is not supposed to hurt the user. At least… Not like that.”

Sakura sits up gingerly, accepting the half-empty glass of water from Inoichi, who’s doing a much worse job at concealing his concern than Tsunade.  _ I really hope this is the last time in a long time that I’m in a position to receive water like this. This is the third time! It’s pathetic.  _ She thinks as she returns the glass to her bedside table, which is really more of a wheeled cart than a table.

“Well,” Sakura sighs, her eyes tracing the lines of her activated seal. “I was kinda hoping the seal would do a better job of minimizing the pain. That was much worse than I expected it to be. But I guess I can’t complain with the results.”

“You mean the seal’s activation? Or the power it’s giving you right now?” Jiraiya questions, still standing stiffly in the corner as if expecting to jump into battle at any moment. Sakura resists the urge to roll her eyes. It’s not like this Jiraiya has any experience with the Strength of a Hundred Seal to know what had happened. She doubts even Tsunade can guess exactly what activating her seal had done. Still, she hasn’t done anything to deserve his suspicion and she’s getting tired of dealing with it all.

“I don’t think that’s what she meant,” Tsunade replies, tsking as she runs a quick diagnostic jutsu over Sakura’s body to confirm her suspicions. “Her tenketsu are healed, as we expected. But that’s not all. Her normal chakra capacity, without the seal’s influence, has also expanded to at least twenty times what it was a few minutes ago. I’d say they’re almost jonin level now.”

“She absorbed all the extra chakra from the seal,” Inoichi says, an air of incredulity coating his words as he looks at her with wide eyes. “How is that even possible, to increase your chakra capacity like that? Even with the seal it just seems impossible. It must be pretty amazing to do something like that.”

“You’re wrong,” Tsunade replies, looking down at Sakura with a look of mixed disbelief and curiosity. “That seal doesn’t have the capability to force a person’s body to accept foreign chakra, certainly not at those levels. So, tell us then, Sakura Haruno. How is it possible that you had so much of your own chakra stored in the seal that it nearly killed you? Even if you’d storing chakra since the day you were born you’d never have been able to do something like that with the pitiful reserves you had before all this. There’s no way.”

“Inoichi,” Sakura says, looking over at him with a small, forced smile.

“Right,” he replies stiffly. Sakura can tell, by the way the man’s eyes seem to trace her own as if looking for even the smallest sign of fear or hesitation, that he’s still uneasy about his role in all of this.  _ Get over it already! Are you a ninja or what, Inoichi?  _ “Just relax. The easier I get through to your mindscape, the less damage there will be. It’ll be better for both of us if I don’t have to force my way in.”

“Don’t worry,” Sakura says, placing a hand on his arm in an effort to comfort him. “The seal will heal any accidental damage. Besides, you heard Lady Tsunade. My reserves are much bigger now, maybe even bigger than yours. Your jutsu shouldn’t cause any more damage to me than it would to a much older shinobi.”

Inoichi just grunts lowly in response, his lips set in a grim line. Placing a hand on her forehead, he takes a deep breath before closing his eyes, only to find himself standing in a black void with a pink-haired teenager who looks almost a decade older than the Sakura he knows. Startled, he lowers himself quickly into a defensive stance.

“Who are you?” He growls, “What have you done with Sakura Haruno?”

Nonplussed, she raises a hand behind her head and smiling apologetically. Inoichi narrows his eyes at her, clearly not impressed.

“You’d better start explaining this to me,” he replies, “cause whatever this is, it’s no joke.”

“Well, no,” Sakura says, “It’s actually worse than you can ever imagine, but let’s start from the beginning. Maybe you can help me understand it all. I certainly don’t have all the answers.”

Suddenly, the surrounding darkness explodes into light, and Inoichi is forced to squint in order to see. He’s always been in control of which memories he sees while forcefully using this jutsu. She shouldn’t be able to override his control like this.

He gasps, seeing Ino run past through him wearing the same lilac dress she’d worn to her first day at the academy a few weeks ago. He watches closely as his daughter approaches Sakura, crying on the ground from scraped knees and shy as meeting someone new in such a vulnerable position.

“This was the first time I met Ino.” Inoichi whirls around to look incredulously at the faded image of the older pink-haired teen as she speaks. “She was my first friend, my best friend. She was always so mucus stronger than me back then. Braver. She helped me find my own strength before I knew it was there.”

Inoichi flinches as the scene changes just as suddenly as before and he finds himself standing on the roof of the academy building. Seeing Kakashi Hatake standing before three fresh genin, Inoichi’s jaw drops, causing the teen to laugh lightly between her teeth. The scene before him is comical. He can tell right away that the genin have no chemistry, and Kakashi seems to be just as socially inept as always.

When the scene changes to show the team at training ground three, Inoichi isn’t surprised to find the team struggling to get the bells from their new sensei. He is, however, surprised to see the team pass in the end. Kakashi was never one to go easy on anyone, never the less a team of new genin with little to no inclination towards teamwork.

“I was put on a team with the village pariah and the last Uchiha. Our team leader was renowned around the world as the least punctual ninja to ever exist. Back then, all I could think of was what more I could do to impress Sasuke-kun, to get him to show affection to me like I always did to him. I was innocent and naive, and I never realized how much that would cost, in the end.”

Inoichi tenses as the scenes begin changing just slow enough for him to grasp the barest of details: the chunin exam arena overtaken by battles between foreign and leaf shinobi, civilians lying across the ground as if dead, a red-haired sand ninja half with sand limbs rampaging out of control and destroying the nearby forest, the third Hokage laid to rest as the village mourns, their black attire dripping wet from sorrowful rain, Sasuke and Kakashi lying in a coma while Sakura sits in clear distress at their bedsides, Sakura in tears upon learning of Sasuke’s successful attempt to escape the village, Sakura’s harsh training under Tsunade, the village destroyed by Pein only to be saved by Naruto, Danzo instated as the sixth Hokage, Tsunade waking from her coma and announcing the fourth great ninja war, images of ninja from each of the five great villages standing together with headbands that just read shinobi, the pink-haired teen covered in mud and blood swaying from chakra exhaustion after healing a shinobi’s ghastly battle wound, her assault at the hands of an imposter in the image of Neji Hyuga, and finally, her battle against a woman with long white hair and the eyes of a Hyuga.

Inoichi watches in a daze as the teen, who he’s now convinced is Sakura Haruno, launches herself at the white-haired woman with the intention of creating a diversion for her teammates. The memory halts as Sakura is hit by a blast of energy and he is returned to the original black void of her mindscape.

The older Sakura stands stiffly, looking calm and collected, though Inoichi can see the slight trembling in her fingertips. He can only imagine how she feels, just watching the short flashes of her memories has him more horrified than he’s ever been. Only the knowledge that the village has at least a few years before any of the events Sakura showed him might occur keeps him in control of his rising sense of panic. Still, Inoichi waits for Sakura to speak, incapable of making any useful comments on the matter just yet.

Inoichi finds himself surprised when Sakura’s mindscape twists into another memory. This time, the black void remains, though he can see another teenage Sakura floating unconsciously nearby. He watches as she struggles to wake herself before she groans and opens her eyes to the hospital room as a small child, confused and disoriented. Seeing Tsunade appear in the room, the pieces begin falling into place and he turns to Sakura with a look of awe.

“So you’re from the future,” he remarks, no question in his tone. His gaze hardens in severity as he continues. “What happened to your younger self’s consciousness if you’re in here controlling her body? Is she in here somewhere?”

Sakura frowns deeply, rubbing at her arms subconsciously. “I haven’t seen any trace of her, not that I’ve had much time to look. I’m worried that she’s gone, maybe even for good.”

Inoichi closes his eyes in remorse.  _ What even is this? Should I be sad that little Sakura and all of her potential is gone, even though she’s only been replaced by a different version of herself? Do I even have the right to care? It’s not like I knew the kid all that well. _

“We’ll have to worry about that later,” Inoichi sighs, putting a hand to his temple. “Right now we need to figure out what we’re going to do next. How do we even go about explaining this all to the two Sannin out there? I know you involved me in all of this because you thought they’d take my conclusions as facts, but they might just think I’m insane.”

“You have to show them what I showed you,” Sakura crosses her arms, raising her eyes. She didn’t expect Inoichi to be this dense.

“We both know I’m not powerful enough to show them anything against their will,” Inoichi replies, raising his own eyes in defense.

_ Wow. Ino’s dad sure is a pushover.  _ Sakura laughs lightly, releasing the remaining tension in her body.

“Come on, Inoichi-ojisan,” She says, feeling no small amount of satisfaction upon seeing his jaw drop at the honorific. “Do you really think they’ll refuse? You saw how curious and concerned they both are. Sure, Jiraiya is suspicious I might be a spy or something like that, but at least Tsunade will allow it. If I know her, and you know that I do, she probably already has a good idea of what’s going on. Besides, it’ll take far too long to explain if you don’t.”

“You know,” Inoichi says, clearing his throat. “It’s weird seeing you like this. You’re so much more… reserved, as a kid than you are now. Tsunade’s doing, I’m sure.”

“Ino’s actually,” Sakura responds, smiling widely and changing her mindscape to show him one last memory. He watches fondly as his daughter sits in a field of flowers with a teary-eyed Sakura. He’s not sure what happened to make her so upset, but he was proud that she seemed to know just what the little girl needed to hear to feel better. Eventually, little Sakura’s tears dry and he can see the resolve grow in her young green eyes.

“We grow apart pretty quickly after this,” Sakura states, her voice tinged with regret. “It was all over Sasuke, and it was stupid and petty. But, even though our rivalry was based on something so naive, we both grow so strong because of it. We’re best friends again now, but I think this time I’ll skip the petty rivalry. Maybe this time we can be true rivals.”

Inoichi stays silent as the memory ends and they are returned to the darkness. Sakura allows him a few moments to think before walking over to him and setting a hand on his shoulder.

“Are you ready to face the Sannin with me?” She asks softly.

He nods sharply before he releases his jutsu and he is returned blinking to the blinding light of Sakura’s hospital room.


	6. Inoichi and an Unending Headache

As Iniochi’s eyes adjust to the light of the room, harsh against his blinking eyes, he glances over at Sakura in the bed next to him. She blinks back at him and he can see the exhaustion creasing below her eyes.

Somehow, she looks even worse than before as she falls back onto her pillows, once again unconscious. Immediately, Tsunade steps up to run her diagnostic jutsu over Sakura’s seal with a deep frown. Jiraiya still stands impassively in the corner, almost as if he hadn’t moved this whole time. Inoichi doesn’t believe it for a moment.

He shuts his eyes quickly, groaning low under his breath as pain shoots up into his own forehead. Clutching the bridge of his nose, he holds himself as still as he can, doing his best to avoid aggravating the ache in his head. It’s been a long time since his jutsu had caused this kind of pain, not since he was a genin.

Tsunade must have looked up from Sakura for a moment, maybe decided the girl was fine or somehow noticed that he was not so well himself because he soon feels soothed as her chakra enters his system. When was the last time he had to be healed by medical ninjutsu? How is it that he feels so out of his depth after only a few years off of the active roster? Not that this situation would be any more believable at any other point in his life.

“What happened, Inoichi?” Jiraiya questions, moving from the corner to stand next to him. Inoichi’s sure he’s concerned, for both of them, but there’s no hint of it in his steely gaze. A closet pervert in name, but still one of the legendary Sannin in practice.

“It’s a small wonder he’s even awake. His brain has been overloaded by her chakra,” Tsunade responds cooly, not taking her eyes off the blond man. “She must have taken control of his jutsu purely by force. It’s the only way for anyone not of the Yamanaka clan to do it. Obviously, it took a lot out of her, she’ll be out for a few hours at least. Chakra exhaustion, probably a combination of the side effects of using the seal and overriding Inoichi’s jutsu, the fool. That seal was never meant to be used by an eight-year-old. She entered into that jutsu willingly, and we assumed she wouldn’t be able to pull anything. We were wrong to trust her.”

“You’re wrong,” Inoichi croaks, cringing at how coarse his voice sounds. It’s not like he’d been sleeping or unconscious, the jutsu itself couldn’t have lasted more than an hour at most. The pain had been bad, but he didn’t think it was that bad. Swallowing, he tries again.  
“She’s more than you think she is.”

Tsunade had cut him off when he’d tried to explain what had happened in Sakura’s mindscape. She’d said something about rest and getting back some level of coherence before she would believe anything he had to say. It hadn’t lifted his spirits very much.

He’d walked home after they’d made plans to meet back up in the side room of the flower shop. His wife had taken one look at the pale, sweaty state of his face before sending him to bed for a nap. He was just glad Ino was still at the academy so she wouldn’t see him like this. 

This time, his wife makes sure there is both tea and sake sitting out on the table when the Sannin return to the shop, though the tea is more for appearance’s sake. She doesn’t expect any of them to actually drink it.

Inoichi was still pale when the Sannin finally arrive a few hours later, but it was more out of exhaustion than pain. The last time he’d faced jutsu whiplash from his family jutsu like this, the exhaustion had lasted weeks. He hopes it will only last a few days this time.

Tsunade had checked him over before anything else. Inoichi stayed silent while she ran glowing hands over his forehead, he briefly remembers Tsunade as the kind of woman who needs to verify things for herself if she’s going to believe them. Nothing he could have said would have convinced her that there were no signs of a lingering genjutsu, mind traps, or other possible attacks on his mind. He knew there weren’t any, but it was better to let her decide that for herself.

She’d grumbled to herself before pushing past him into the shop, Jiraiya shrugging apologetically behind her. By the time Inoichi steps into the room behind them, just moments later, Tsunade is downing (hopefully) her first cup of Sake with Jiraiya right behind her pouring his own. Inoichi shrugs before joining them at the table and pouring himself a cup as well.

This was going to be a long night, after all. Especially considering he’d promised Sakura he’d use his jutsu again, on the Sannin this time. This is a great idea. But somehow he knows that Sakura had known he would have chakra exhaustion, how hard it would be for him to keep that promise. And so had he when he’d promised to do it.

“Out with it, Inoichi,” Tsunade says, her tone somewhere between a groan and a growl. He’s not convinced she’s had enough sake to really listen to what he has to say. Oh well.

“You’ll have to let me show you.” He replies, looking first at Tsunade and then at Jiraiya, dead in the center of their eyes to show his conviction. There was no other way.

“Fine,” Tsunade cuts in, interrupting what Inoichi knew was going to be some statement of firm disapproval from Jiraiya. “If that’s what it’s gonna take to finally get to the bottom of all this. Fine. But I’m not gonna take the blame when you end up unconscious like that girl because you pushed yourself too hard. And if I think for a moment that she fabricated anything that you show to us, I’ll stick you in T&I. I hope they won’t mind working on a coworker.”

Jiraiya just sighs in response and moves close enough to Inoichi for him to easily reach.

“It should be okay, but I do have to ask,” Inoichi says, coughing awkwardly. “Please don’t resist my jutsu. It’s not… unlikely the jutsu could knock me out if you do. The damage Sakura did will last at least a few more days, but if I get hit again with backlash it could be months, even if Tsunade were to treat me.”

“We get it.” Jiraiya sighs, looking sharply at Tsunade as she tries to interrupt him. “We won’t resist as long as there’s no reason to. But you’d better be careful because if you give us a reason to resist, I don’t think either of us can guarantee you’ll recover in a few months.”

Inoichi nods back resolutely, he would never expect either of the Sannin to leave themselves open to a potential attack. This whole situation with Sakura, it’s suspicious. Even with the evidence Sakura provided him, it’s still hard to believe. There’s no doubt in his mind that Sakura was telling him the truth. He wishes he had the same level of confidence in his abilities to convince the Sannin.

Well, Sakura does seem to know all of them (including himself) better than anyone else here, and she’d been convinced he could do this. He’ll just have to trust in that confidence to get him through. It’s not like he has much else.

Making eye contact with Tsunade first, then Jiraiya, Inoichi raises his hands to make contact with their foreheads. With the Sannin now in his mindscape, he stands to the side while the Sannin look around at their new surroundings. Sakura’s mindscape had been dark, far too dark to see anything at all. Opposingly, Inoichi’s mindscape resembled his clan compound, though neither of the Sannin were familiar enough with it to know if there were differences. They both imagine the real compound has significantly less locks, as every door, window, and container they could see was protected by a pad lock or protection seal.

“Leave it to a Yamanaka to protect his own mindscape from infiltration.” Tsunade says, grimacing as she imagined someone breaking into this place. “I bet in anyone managed to get this far in, it wouldn’t even be worth the effort to get any kind of information. By the time they managed to break any of these seals, you’d probably have already fried them. I don’t even want to think about what those seals could do to someone if they tried to tamper with them.”

Intriguiged, Jiraiya walke over to the nearest seal, which is larger than most of the others, probably because it’s protecting a building that he’s sure doesn’t actually exist. It stands out from the other clan buildings like a jonin is a group of genin. They all looked to have been built within the last decade and Jiraiya knew the Yamanaka clan compound had been among those that had been impacted during the Kyuubi attack.

The building with the seal, however, appears to be much older. Based on it’s weather appearance, Jiraiya wagers it might even be as old as the village itself, or at least as old as the compound.

“I don’t know about the rest of them,” Jiraiya comments, tracing his fingers lightly over the seal, eyebrows raised and clearly impressed. “This seal, though, is not something to be taken lightly. I bet if I tore it, even a little bit, I’d be nothing more than a barely breathing shell. My brain would be so fried, I’d have to forget thinking ever again. It’s impressive, for someone who isn’t a seal master.”

Inoichi tries to hide his blush at the praise. Afterall, it’s not often a man is acknowledged by a ninja as powerful as Jiraiya.

“Hmm.” Inoichi responds, coming forward to stand next to Jiraiya. “I wouldn’t be able to make this seal out of my mindscape. I saw it once, used by an Uzumaki. I can only reproduce it in here, where I can force it into existence with memory. It’s not really that impressive, but its certainly effective at protecting the secrets I have hidden in there.”

“That’s fascinating, really,” Tsunade says, looking over at Inoichi and narrowing her eyes with clearly shown impatience. “But that’s not why we’re here. Get on with it already.”

Inoichi nods tersely back at Tsunade, beginning to get annoyed with her generally bitter attitude. Both of the Sannin really have been difficult to begin with, Tsunade with her persisten desire to leave the village at all costs. He’s really not sure what could have happened to her to change her perspective so much that she ended up as the fifth Hokage. Though, he can imagine the death of her sensei might have had something to do with it. Jiraiya has been difficult as well, with his unending suspicion. Sure, it was completely reasonable, but that didn’t make it any less annoying to deal with. He just really doesn’t have the energy to deal with either of them for much longer. And he really doesn’t want to end up either of their bad sides.

“I’m going to start by showing you exactly what she showed me.” Inoichi states, shifting his mindscape to show the memory of his initial arrival in Sakura’s mindscape. “I’m not going to leave anything out, but you should know, many of the memories she showed me were only meant for me specifically, to prove that she’s the same Sakura I know.”

As the memories plays, Inoichi stays silent, refusing to look at either Jiraiya or Tsunade despite the few questioning looks they sent his way. When the memory ends, all three of them are blinded as they are return to Inoichi’s compound mindscape. Still, Inoichi refuses to be the first to speak. He has enough experience with people to know that anything he says at that moment will affect the others’ responses, and he wants to get gauge their initial reactions for himself before giving any of his opinions.

“Why are you so convinced she’s telling the truth, Inoichi? That she’s not being manipulated in some way, or even that she’s just delusional. Explain yourself.” Tsunade states, the tension clear in her voice, even though it’s evident the effort she’s making to control her tone.

“I found no evidence her mind had been tampered with.” Inoichi replies, “And it explains everything. How she has that seal, her new chakra levels, her condition. It even explains why she recognizes your chakra Tsunade, and she knows how you tend to act Jiraiya. And she called for me specifically, when she could have called for any Yamanaka to come to her aid in this, but she called for me. Her uncle Inoichi, because she knew what I’m capable of and because she trusts me more than anyone else capable of helping her right now.”

Inoichi pauses to catch his breath a little, a little embarrassed to have caught himself rambling on like a nervous Genin. “And neither of you have struggled against me, so you must have noticed, too. At the very least, she believes everything she showed me. Those were real memories. Sakura needs our help.”

“Great.” Jiraiya groans, falling heavily to the ground with a thud. “I honestly think it would have been better if the girl was a spy. It would have been much easier to deal with, much less work. Oh, well. I guess there’s nothing to do about it but to get to work. She’s got my help, if she needs it. What about you, Tsunade? Something tells me the girl cares much more about your trust than mine.”

Tsunade sighs heavily, pinching her nose between her fingers looking thoroughly exhausted. She takes a few minutes to respond, but when she does Inoichi can tell she is not happy.

“When that girl wakes up, she had better be ready for a fight. If I’m going to have to stay in this God-forsaken village, I’ll have to relieve my stress somehow. She’ll make as good a punching bag as any, probably better. Afterall, she’s just become the greatest source of stress in my life. So, yeah. She’d better be ready for a beating.”


	7. Sakura and the Consequences of her Actions

A few days have passed since Tsunade and Jiraiya were convinced of Sakura’s innocence and all over the village, ninja are still working to repair the large craters Tsunade and Sakura had carved into the streets of the village.

Tsunade had left Inoichi’s shop, heading straight for the nearest bar and drinking enough to put anyone else in a coma. Jiraiya had joined her but had shown great restraint, drinking a few bottles of sake, but returning to his hotel room at closing time without assistance. Tsunade was thrown from the bar, too inebriated to put up much of a fight. She’d wandered the village, haunting the streets like a drunken phantom of the night until morning. Still drunk, she burst into the hospital, woke Sakura with a tap of medical chakra to her forehead, and tossed her out of the second-floor window.

To her credit, Sakura managed to land on her feet, though she was far too dazed to react when Tsunade practically flew from the window and struck her with a chakra enhanced fist to the gut. Sakura was sent flying once again, this time failing to catch herself as she went straight through a small bakery.

Tsunade was oblivious to the panicked civilians in the streets around her. They were horrified at seeing a grown ninja use her chakra against a small pale girl in hospital clothes, especially after seeing the poor kid fly straight through a wall. The screams and shouts from the civilians quickly attracted the attention of the on-duty Anbu, who jumped down from the roofs to investigate.

An Anbu, with particularly chaotic silver spikes jutting above his mask, jumped directly in front of the raging Sannin, lacking the hesitation the rest of the Anbu displayed in the distance they kept.

“What’s the situation, Tsunade-Sama?” He asked, noting the stench of alcohol on her breath and the redness of her cheeks. She stepped forward menacingly, hoping to intimidate him into backing down and staying out of the way, and found herself further enraged when he neither stepped back nor responded to her unspoken threat.

“Get out of my way, kid. That girl has this coming.” She growled, stomping a hole into the stone below her.

“I’m afraid I can’t do that. Not without a better explanation. That is a civilian child.” He responded with no change in posture or tone of voice. With no warning, Tsunade shifted forward, punching the anbu with enough force to send the man flying through the air so he disappeared into the distance. The remaining anbu looked at each other, before running in the direction their leader was thrown. After all, this is Tsunade they were dealing with.

They found him lying on a pile of rubble from the side of the Hokage Mountain, completely dazed and out of it. It was a miracle he was even conscious, as blood was leaking from a long scratch near the back of his head and from several scratches across his arms and legs.

However, he did manage to stall her long enough for Sakura to gather herself. So, when Tsunade stomped into the bakery, Sakura was ready for her. She knew she couldn’t take another of Tsunade’s chakra enhanced hits, and even with her new high chakra levels, she still has the muscles of a pampered civilian child. But, she knows well that there’s never anywhere to start except for the basics, and Tsunade had taught her years ago the most important part of being a medical ninja is to not get hit by an enemy ninja.

So, Sakura dodged left, right, up, and down proving her flexibility and agility. Sakura hadn't found many advantages to her smaller size, but she couldn’t complain about being a smaller target. She knew how lucky she was at that moment that Tsunade is not at full strength and not thinking straight, she wouldn’t stand a chance if Tsunade had come at her sober and with the intention to maim or kill. Even then, she wasn't convinced Tsunade was trying to hurt her, though she wasn’t sure exactly what was going through her mentor’s mind. Probably not too much, considering the amount she must have drank to behave like that.

Eventually, after hours of a cat and mouse game, one that leaves the village looking more like swiss cheese, Sakura’s body failed to keep up the high pace of the fight. She tripped on a jagged stone, cutting her ankle deeply as she fell back onto the ground, Tsunade poised to pound her deep into the soil. As Sakura crossed her arms in front of her face, bracing for the hit she knew wouldn’t have an ounce of restraint, she felt something whoosh in front of her, and the civilian shouts that had been loud before suddenly became eerily quiet.

She opened her eyes to find that Jiraiya had stepped in front of her, and was frowning disapprovingly at his long time friend, his arms crossed, his broad shoulders a shield. Tsunade stood in front of him, breathing heavily and glaring fiercely back at him, almost begging him to challenge her.

“Tsunade! You said you were going to fight her, not tear up the whole village! What’s wrong with you?” He shouted, gesturing towards the carnage around them and looking pointedly towards the shell-shocked civilians cowering on the edges of the roads and peeking their heads out of doorways.

Tsunade turned her head, giving the civilians around her little more than a glance before scoffing. “You know I don’t care about this village anymore, Jiraiya. Why should I care about them?”

“We all know that’s not true,” Sakura said, bringing herself up to stand shakily, “If you really didn’t care, there would have been casualties, major injuries at the very least among the civilians, you may not have pulled your punches, but you cared enough to make sure you were aiming them at someone you trust can take the hits.”

“No, she’s right,” Jiraiya stated, cutting off Tsunade as she tried to retort back in denial. “I’ve seen you get angry before, much angrier than you are now, and drunker too. Back then, we were in the land of rain. Even though you were angry at me, you didn’t hesitate to take down anything or anyone that got in your way, civilians included. So, if you don’t care about the village, why were you so careful to leave them out of this?”

“So, what? Do you think I would’ve left the village for so long if I still cared? This place is toxic. It takes everything you hold dear and tears it away piece by piece.” Tsunade’s anger started to fade as she got more upset. She lowered her fists and her shoulders curled in on herself. “But maybe you’re right, these people haven’t done anything to me, why should I hurt them. Even the kid. Even she hasn’t done anything to me, except bring me back to this place.”

“And isn’t it about time?” Hiruzen stated gently, having appeared suddenly behind Tsunade as if he’d been there all along. “Haven’t you been running long enough?”

“Oh, shut up old man!” Tsunade responded, stepping away from him and frowning deeply. “You have no right! If you’d listened to me and Dan back then, things would be different. But you thought you knew better, you always do.”

“You know the solution to that problem, don’t you?” Sakura asked, coming out from behind Jiraiya, limping from the pain in her ankle and clutching a particularly bad scrape across her forearm. “That’s why you’re so mad at me, isn’t it? Because, out of nowhere, I came here and forced you to look at yourself, to look at the village. And you decided you can’t sit by and do nothing anymore. And you don’t even know if you’re ready for all of that responsibility. You don’t know if you’re ready to admit you still care about this place.”

To his credit, Hiruzen showed no outward signs of his bewilderment. This civilian girl, which his anbu had rushed into his office to tell him he needed to rescue from his rampaging student, surprised him. He had been relieved to find Jiraiya already standing protectively in front of the girl when he’d arrived but had not expected to see her standing up to Tsunade. Though, this must have been one of the reasons Jiraiya had been so suspicious of the girl in the first place, besides the strange seal, of course.

“Don’t think that just cause you’re right I won’t keep pounding you!” Tsunade responded, turning her back on Sakura and looking over at Hiruzen. “We’ve got a long road ahead of us, you and me. And those pathetic muscles you have just aren’t going to cut it. So, I’ll keep throwing punches until you are ready to take a hit from anyone. Got it?”

Sakura was slow to respond, but after her moment of shock passed, she smiled wide and nodded her head. “Of course, Tsunade-shishou!”

She wasn’t sure what she’d even been expecting from her old shishou. She knew from what Shizune had told her over the years, that Tsunade was different before she met Naruto, more broken. Shizune always believed Tsunade was just lying to herself all those years, acting out against her true beliefs to hide how much it actually hurt her to stay away from the village. Sakura was glad it seemed Shizune was right.

“Come on, old man,” Tsunade stated, starting to walk past Hiruzen back towards the Hokage’s tower. “We have a lot to talk about.”

Hiruzen looked at Jiraiya and nodded before following Tsunade. Jiraiya put a hand on Sakura’s shoulder, turning her gently to look back at him.

“Are you okay, Sakura?” He asked, turning his eyes to her numerous scratches and the blood pooling around her foot. “It looks like she got you pretty good.”

“Yeah, I’m good,” Sakura replied, letting herself fall back to relieve the pressure on her ankle, “If you think she got me good, you should look at the village, it got hit more times than I did.”

“You’re not wrong about that, kid.” Jiraiya laughed, shrugging his shoulders, still having a hard time believing this short little kid could stand up to Tsunade like that and not be even slightly phased. She is Tsunade’s apprentice, that’s for sure.

“Can you bring me somewhere away from the crowds?” Sakura asked, looking over at the civilians who are approaching the girl with curiosity and concern. “I’d love to heal these injuries back to normal, but somehow I think I’ve shown enough of my abilities today.”

“No problem, kid,” Jiraiya stated, gently scooping her into his arms and jumping up onto a nearby roof. “I know just the place.”

Sakura hid behind Jiraiya’s haori as he continued forwards, easily recognizing where he was taking her. She took a moment to flex her muscles little by little, checking for damage. The injuries to her muscles were minimal, mostly muscle tears due to straining her young body to move in ways it’s not yet trained to move in yet. Those injuries Sakura can heal easily. Her ankle, on the other hand, will take a few days of treatment to fully heal, especially with her chakra control being worse than usual due to her still injured tenketsu. She can tell Tsunade had run an initial treatment, but it might take weeks, even months for them to heal fully.

Sakura’s thoughts were interrupted as Jiraiya jumped down in front of the Yamanaka flower shop and pushed the door open. From her spot beneath the haori, Sakura couldn’t see the way Inoichi’s face pinched with annoyance. If Jiraiya was here, obviously something was wrong, but man if he doesn’t want one normal day in his shop.

She also missed his face change into a look of concern when he spotted the drops of blood dripping onto the front of Jiraiya’s shirt from beneath the haori. He quickly stepped out from behind the counter, ushering Jiraiya into the side room without bothering to call for his wife to tend the register. He quickly activated the seals in the room.

“Where are you hurt?” He asked, inspecting the large man for any sign of pain or injury. In response Jiraiya just shook his head, removing Sakura from beneath his haori and setting her down on the table.

“What happened?” He asked again, moving to fuss over Sakura. “Tsunade?”

“Got it in one,” Jiraiya said moving to lean against the wall. “She doesn’t seem too worried about herself though, so I imagine she’ll be fine.”

Sakura gave a little smile at that and began healing her ankle, grimacing at the stinging of her tenketsu as she used her chakra. She continued the process of repairing the bones, muscle, and tissue as silence permeated the room. Letting out a heavy sigh, she brought her hands away from her ankle and looked up at Inoichi.

“That’ll have to be good enough for now.” She stated, frowning in annoyance, “I don’t think I should push myself too much and risk more damage. Do you have first aid supplies around here I can use for the rest?”

“Yeah, of course,” Inoichi replied, pulling a small box of supplies from a cabinet along the wall. “Let me help you.”

Sakura allowed him to bandage the rest of the scrapes, knowing he would only be more worried if she refused the help. His bandaging skills could use some work, but as the wounds aren’t severe anyway, Sakura doesn’t mind waiting until she’s alone to redo them to her standards.

“So, fill me in,” Inoichi said, sitting down and crossing his arms. “What are we doing from here?”


End file.
